The use of MS, e.g., mobile telephones, personal data assistants (PDAs), laptop computers, Internet appliances, etc., has increased significantly over the years. Over two thirds of the U.S. population carry mobile telephones, and many individuals use their mobile telephone as their primary communication device.
Many MS devices include special computer-enabled features. In addition to functioning as an ordinary mobile telephone, an MS with computer-enabled features may include wireless e-mail, Internet, Web browsing, and fax. Web browsers are software applications that enable the user to display and interact with text, images, and other information typically located on a web page at a website on the World Wide Web or a local area network. Text and images on a web page can contain hyperlinks to other web pages at the same or different website. Web browsers allow the access information provided on many web pages at many websites by traversing these links. Web browsers format HTML information for display, so the appearance of a web page may differ between browsers. Many web sites offer content, products and software for sale that a user may want to access or purchase. For example, mobile telephone subscribers may be able to purchase and download a myriad of ring tones and games to their mobile telephone from a service provider web site.
There are a variety of ways that mobile telephone users can have messages delivered to another user, including voicemail, e-mail, text, image and video messaging. The user of a mobile telephone may, for example, access the Internet, access an e-mail website, type a message using the key pad of the mobile telephone and have the message delivered to the e-mail address of the other user. Another way that a mobile telephone may be used to deliver a message is through the use of text messaging. Text messaging or Short Message Service (SMS) enables the user to send messages of up to 160 characters. A service center associated with the mobile network receives, stores and forwards short messages received from a mobile telephone. If the recipient is not available, the service center will retry to send a message at a later time. Another way of delivering a message is through the use of a voicemail system. A message may be sent to another user or by accessing a voicemail system, logging in with an appropriate ID and password, recording a message and instructing the voicemail message to send it to the other user by inputting a voicemail destination address (usually the other person's extension). Many of these messaging systems enable the user to schedule a future delivery of the message. For example, some voicemail systems enable the user to record a message, input the delivery address (usually a phone number), and program to deliver each date and time. There are also applications that allow computer users to compose e-mails and have them delivered at a specified time in the future.
Many mobile telephones allow the user to program a list of contacts on the device. A typical entry in a contacts list would include the name of the contact, and the telephone number of the contact. The contact lists may include fields for the category of contact (business, personal, etc.) and the type of telephone number for the entry (work, home, mobile).
The expansion of the use of the Internet, e-mail, voicemail, social networking sites, mobile telephones and other appliances of modern life has resulted in changes to social interaction. It has been advanced that individuals have larger social networks with weaker ties. Weak ties may be mere acquaintances, as opposed to strong ties that include close friends or family members.
There is a need to provide users with a user friendly capability to maintain and nurture the strong ties in their social network. One way of reinforcing strong ties is to promote contact between the user and members of the social network at significant events associated with the member of the social network. For example, birthdays, anniversaries, Father's Day, Mother's Day, and other events provide an opportunity for members of a social network to interact and nurture the strong ties. However, busy schedules many times prevent this kind of interaction.
There is a need to provide a user friendly method to enable a person to maintain contact with strong ties in their social network by providing a messaging capability associated with significant events. There is a need to enable mobile telephone users to use their mobile telephones as an appliance for messaging members of their social network upon the occurrence of significant events. There is a need to enable mobile telephone users to effectively manage their social network through an easy-to-use and effective messaging capability.